Phil Luciano: Hurricane hinders help for Haitians

Thursday

Aug 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMAug 28, 2008 at 8:57 PM

Dick Hammond is ready to jump into the worst mess of his life. Hammond, founder of the Peoria-based Friends of the Children of Haiti, has been stalled in Miami as Hurricane Gustav and its aftermath have been wreaking havoc on the Caribbean country.

Phil Luciano

Dick Hammond is ready to jump into the worst mess of his life.

Hammond, founder of the Peoria-based Friends of the Children of Haiti, has been stalled in Miami as Hurricane Gustav and its aftermath have been wreaking havoc on the Caribbean country. But Hammond, 70, is eager to get down there and somehow try to get the organization's storm-ravaged medical clinic in decent enough shape for his next visiting medical team, slated to land Sept. 9.

If that team can't get there, that means no medical care for thousands of patients, including many devastated by Gustav.

"This is the worst storm they've had since we built the clinic (in 2000)," Hammond said Wednesday from a Miami hotel, waiting for airplane service to return to Haiti.

This isn't the first time I've written about Friends of the Children of Haiti, an all-volunteer, not-for-profit group that serves 10,000 patients a year on the rural, southern peninsula of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. I've assisted with 23-year-old Friends on several medical trips, and, full disclosure, I now serve on its board of directors.

Hammond and his wife, Barb, who live at the clinic most of the year, were to arrive early this week in Haiti to supervise preparations for the September team's 21 volunteers, including three doctors, two dentists and others from central Illinois, Texas, Arizona, Montana and elsewhere.

But Monday, the airport in the capital of Port-au-Prince shut down, fearful of the approaching hurricane. Hammond called caretakers at the clinic, a three-story, 6,000-square-foot structure just 300 feet from the Caribbean Sea. Workers covered windows with plywood and otherwise secured the building.

But 70-mph winds blew away the plywood, allowing rain to pour inside for the past three days. Meanwhile, the hurricane destroyed one of two rooftop tanks that supply water for the clinic. Then a storm-cracked tree toppled atop of an already beleaguered Caterpillar Inc. generator, leaving wires exposed and further usage dubious. And a crumpled clinic antennae, coupled with a lack of electricity throughout the area, has rendered the clinic incommunicado.

When he finally gets to the clinic, Hammond's first duty will be to clear the building of standing water. Next, he will determine the extent of damage to the water tank and generator, both of which are crucial to the work and well-being operation of the medical team.

A lack of a generator and water would halt the clinic, whose work is vital in this part of the world. In Haiti, infant mortality is one in eight, life expectancy is under 50 and people often die for the lack of enough money for a $2 antibiotic.

About 2,000 patients are expected to visit the clinic Sept. 9 to 19. Many of them need ongoing care, especially for hypertension and diabetes. Others typically need medical attention for newfound illnesses and injuries.

Plus, the organization expects additional medical problems because of Gustav. With the water table rising, water supplies - always risky in the Third World - likely will become contaminated. Further, food supplies, already dangerously low, will become more precarious as trucks can't move through mudslide-streaked mountains. Malnutrition only exacerbates ongoing maladies.

Wednesday, in and around the clinic, Haitians' concrete-block, dirt-floor homes were knee-deep in water, said Andre-Gilles Boyer, chief agent for Friends, who spoke to me Wednesday by his iPhone. Worse, they have no place to go; they can't even sleep on the watery ground.

"We are trying to stack up benches so we can sleep above the water," Boyer said.

Despite all the sudden woes, Hammond expects the team to meet all challenges.

"I'm not considering canceling," he says. " ... You don't know how many people are hurt. You don't know how many people will get pneumonia. I think our presence is very necessary."

Hurricane insurance is unavailable for seaside medical clinics in Haiti. So far, Hammond estimates that repairs will cost at least $10,000, just to keep the next team running. That will be tough to handle by Friends, which has no such money in reserves.

"We can use all the help we can get financially," Hammond says.

Contributions can be sent to Friends of the Children of Haiti, P.O. Box 789, Peoria, IL 61652. E-mails can be sent to email@fotcoh.org, while more information about the group is at www.fotcoh.org.

"Things are gonna be a mess," Hammond says. "It's just gonna be a shambles for a while. But we're gonna do it."

Phil Luciano can be reached at pluciano@pjstar.com or (309) 686-3155.

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